Effective Communication: Adapting to Your Audience

Vincent Rhodes, Ph.D

‌Dr. Vincent Rhodes serves as Chief Communications & Marketing Officer for Eastern Virginia Medical School. Previously, Dr. Rhodes served as Communications Manager and Clerk of the School Board for Norfolk Public Schools. Dr. Rhodes also taught high school English, journalism and TV production courses. Prior to becoming an educator, he served as managing editor of the national scuba diving magazine Sport Diver and as a scuba instructor. Besides winning accolades for his own writing, presentation development, and creative work, Dr. Rhodes led an award-winning feature-magazine redesign and implemented a highly successful video program. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from James Madison University and a masters and doctoral degree from Old Dominion University. His dissertation focused on the use of social media and digital backchannel as a means of building community in distance learning environments.

Effective Communication: Adapting to Your Audience

Talking about your research to your peers is often easy. The understand the science and know the terminology. But, how effective are you at communicating with other audiences? They likely don’t have the scientific background. They likely don’t know the technical terms. With a little advanced preparation and practice, this won’t be a problem. The "bite" will discuss how to assess your audience, how to employ analogies and simpler language without “dumbing down” the science, and how an elevator pitch can make your life much easier when speaking with the community, the media, legislators, donors and others.

At the end of the professional development byte you will:

Utilize proposed strategies for adapting communication to a particular audience

Determine the type of language (scientific or lay) most appropriate for the audience

Describe the function and merits of an “elevator pitch” and how to craft an elevator pitch effectively